


Stargazing

by Squeeb100



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Bonding, Fluff, Friendship, and now it's late, but idk, dumb obvious symbolism, romantic undertones if you want them i guess, so i spontaneously rewrote it, takes place probably sometime between lakebed and snowpeak, this is a rewrite of a very old fic that I liked but felt i didn't do justice when I was fourteen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-25
Updated: 2018-04-25
Packaged: 2019-04-27 16:07:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,231
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14429232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Squeeb100/pseuds/Squeeb100
Summary: A blue-eyed wolf greets Ilia one night in Kakariko village and she follows it to a sacred place; Ilia and Link talk about life, memories, and the meaning of stars. TP





	Stargazing

**Author's Note:**

> Eyyyy I'm working on like 3 different fics right now (at about the pace of a snail), but I decided that what I REALLY needed to work on was rewriting this relic from...a long time ago. I wrote it right before I turned fourteen, I think? And it's one of the better things I wrote in that time period but it was still a little bit of a disaster. So I rewrote it and I like it much better now, though it obviously isn't flawless.
> 
> I don't own The Legend of Zelda

My feet are bare. I’m used to it, this much I know, because although many of the villagers and travelers I’ve seen wear shoes, the simple thought of them makes me feel wrong. That’s how I’ve been parsing things out recently, by feeling. And thinking about wearing shoes is like holding a drawing quill in my left hand or bathing in my clothes.

The bare feet work to my advantage, though. This way, I can sneak. I must have done a lot of that in my past life, as well, because it comes to me effortlessly; the floors in Kakariko Village are dirt, which only makes it easier to creep from the Sanctuary. I make it through the door with only one little squeak of the hinges, which stops me in my tracks for a few seconds, holding my breath. Renado can’t know about my insomniac wanderings, because he would make me stay inside at night because it’s dangerous. And I can’t do that, because I don’t know who I am. I don’t know who I am or what I like, and wandering around in the peace and still dark of night gives me calm, gives me a reason to keep on living and trying to remember.

The night air is summer cool, another thing I know instinctively that I love. It smells dusty and fresh at the same time, and I trot out a few joyful steps once I’ve escaped the confines of the Sanctuary. A raven releases its raucous call into the night air, and it reverberates from the canyon walls before dying out. As much as I try to like ravens, these ones are mean, and I’ve had several drop down and assault me without warning. I grimace and skirt as far away from its approximate location as possible. 

I spend most of my walking nights by the spring. The spring is familiar and comforting to me, but I have ventured into the graveyard once or twice before. Tonight the moonlight is spilling through the small mountain pass, inviting me in. I watch my feet take turns propelling me forward, thumping gently on the tight-packed dust.

When the pass opens up, I’m greeted immediately by a gentle breeze. There’s a tranquility in the graveyard. Everyone here is able to sleep. Here they can rest forever. I inspect a name printed on one gravestone; I can’t read it, as I’ve never had much schooling, but I suppose it’s nice that it can be kept here forever. Even though its owner has forgotten it, it lives on.

Ilia. That’s my name. I repeat it to myself sometimes. It's all I remember, and I wonder if anyone in Hyrule knows a thing about me. I wonder if I have a family. I wonder if I was in love. I wonder if anyone's looking for me right now, and is frightened and doesn't know where I am or if I'm safe. I brush my fingers across the weather-worn top of the gravestone and sigh. 

It’s too quiet.

I haven’t heard any ravens call in the past few minutes, and it feels like even the wind has died down. I pause and listen very hard. Something rattles behind me; I whirl around and am met with the sight of several large skeletons. They look like dogs, but with bones worn and cracked by time and teeth too large and sharp to belong to any child of the earth. I back away, right up against the gravestone, as the large creatures stalk toward me. Their movements are smooth and calculated, and I know that if one of them is able to close its jaws around my neck, it will be over. 

I’ve no sooner had that thought than the nearest creature crouches down and springs toward me. I cower instinctively, shielding my face with my arms, but the pain never comes. Guttural yaps and growls suddenly fill the clearing, but I keep my face turned away until it is silent. When I eventually look up, I’m face to face with a wolf.

I make a tiny little “eep!” sound, flattening against the gravestone as the animal regards me. This one isn’t like the others; it has fur, and its position isn’t offensive. It sits among the scattered bones of the creatures that attacked me, and actually whines a bit. I glance between its legs and find that the wolf is male. He’s broad-shouldered, tall and proud, with a thick coat and haunting, intelligent blue eyes. There’s a broken shackle on one of his legs, which has chafed the skin there around the edges.

“Hey boy,” I whisper, still scared practically voiceless. “Did you rescue me?” I’ve never heard of a wild animal doing that, let alone a ruthless predator. I glance down at the wolf’s leg again. “Who trapped you, huh?” The wolf blinks at me, then stands. I reach out hesitantly, and am surprised when he presses his wet nose into the palm of my hand. I reach out to pet him, but he shies away, trots toward the back of the graveyard a few steps. He pauses and turns around.

“Do you want me to follow you?” The wolf trots away another few steps, then looks over his shoulder. Once he’s sure I’m there, he takes off gallops into the darkness. I don’t even really think about what I’m doing until I’ve sprinted after him to the sheer rock face at the back of the graveyard, and by then I can’t see the wolf anywhere.

“Where’d you go, huh, boy?” I ask quietly. I inspect the wall briefly with my hands and nearly fall forward when one goes straight in, entering a small cave. I look through and see light on the other side, and once again, before I really think about what I’m doing, I’m crawling through a tunnel on my hands and knees. As soon as I stand up on the other side, my breath vanishes.

I’ve entered another clearing--a clearing made of the clearest, cleanest water I’ve ever seen, aside from the spring in the village. The lake is deep, but I can see straight to its sandy floor. Across the plane of silver, moon-saturated water is a small peninsula. An ornate headstone rests upon it, and I realize I’ve entered a private grave. Beside the massive headstone is a figure, sitting at the edge of the water and staring into it. I recognize him (mostly by the hat, I’ll admit) as the young knight who escorted Ralis and me here from Castle Town. Link, is his name.

He looks up, almost as if he has been expecting me. “Ilia,” he calls, softly, so that the silence isn’t broken, but loudly enough for me to hear across the water. He beckons with one hand and before I know it I’m sitting next to him--soaking wet, having swum the pond. Link’s tunic is dry, but his hair is soaked, as if he swam the lake himself moments ago. Perhaps he had, just before I left the sanctuary.

The moon and stars are reflected in the glowing water. What had he been trying to see, staring into it so deeply?

“Pretty, isn’t it,” he says suddenly. Not really a question, but a statement, and I realize that he doesn't carry the same refined accent of the other knights and citizens of Castle Town; nor does he carry a Kakariko accent. “Reminds me of a spring back home. I used to go out there at night, when I couldn’t sleep, and look at the stars. I had a friend back then who loved to do that. She’d meet me sometimes, and we’d spend hours out there together, just staring at the sky.” Sentimentality edges his voice, and it’s clear he misses his home. I wonder if I miss mine.

“Don’t you ever see her anymore?” I ask plaintively. 

“I do, but it’s not the same as it was before.” Link smiles a little wistfully, still staring into the water. 

“I understand,” I say, hoping I sound sympathetic. “I don’t know if I have friends. The children in Kakariko seem to like me, and I’ve become friends with Ralis. Telma was very nice to me when I was in Castle Town, but…”

“It’s not the same,” he finished, looking up at me with a smile. Link has a good smile, a smile I could remember. I nod.

Link turns to the sky, then, and I follow his gaze, unable to keep myself from gasping once again. Stars are freckled on a black velvet canvas, randomly scattered balls of light, just suspended there. Renado has pointed out a few to me before, and told me their names, but I can’t imagine anyone naming all these stars. I wonder if they all have names. I wonder if some get left out.

“Beautiful,” I whisper.

“Some people think the stars are actually billions of miles away from us,” Link says. “Another friend of mine thinks it’s possible that the light we’re seeing isn’t actually there, because it’s so far away that it takes years to reach us. But some people dream of reaching them one day.”

“How can you reach the stars?” I ask. Link shakes his head, looking as bewildered as I feel, and I laugh. “Renado says they’re the spirits of the dead. That’s where they go when they leave our bodies. He also says that the ancients named them all after important people and events so they could be remembered forever. He’s been trying to teach me the constellations, too, but I can’t ever remember them.” 

“I know a few constellations,” Link says, turning his blue eyes to me. “I could try and teach you. If you want. Like right there, that’s the Archer, with her arrows of light. There’s Molduga, and then Nayru and Farore, and right there is Din. The ones named after the Goddesses are easiest to remember.” He points each one out in turn, and I follow his finger in awe.

“Wait, wait, slow down! How do you know where they are?”

“It’s good to know some of them for navigation. I spend a lot of time traveling,” Link explains.

“I thought you were a knight,” I inform him, bewildered.

“I’m not. I’m just a traveler.” This is new information, and I wonder all the more why this boy, who isn’t even a royal knight, would go to the trouble of escorting a wagon halfway across Hyrule. Link continues, unfazed. “The best star for traveling by is the North Star. It’s there, above Death Mountain.”

“Which one?” I look up.

“It’s the very brightest star. It’s actually right above the volcano right now.” He points, and I squint. 

“I think I see it.”

“When you know where that star is, you can always find your way. They say it’s Din herself who leads you to safety, since that star is part of her constellation.” Link raises his finger slightly. “My old friend taught me how to find Din from the North Star. See, it’s one of her eyes. You can kind of see her body underneath there, if you trace your eyes down and are creative.”

I do as he says, but nothing jumps out at me--it’s just the night sky. “How am I supposed to find something if I don’t know what it looks like?” I ask, slightly frustrated. “If I don’t know what it is, how will I ever know where to start looking?”

“Just try. You’ll see it, I promise.”

I stare hard for a minute, then gasp. “I do see her, I think! She’s dancing.” 

“That’s right!” Link says brightly. “See? Looking at Death Mountain showed you the North Star, which showed you Din, who leads us home. All it took was someplace to start.”

I finally catch his analogy. “So you think I just need to keep trying,” I clarify. “And eventually I’ll find my memory? Just like Din? You think it’ll be that easy?”

Link looks back into the water, musing. “Renado told me that may be all it takes. I’ll help you in any way I can, Ilia, but I can’t tell you anything. Renado also said that for the memories to be real, you have to come up with them yourself.”

“Is that what this was all about, then?” I ask, suspiciously. 

“Hey,” Link grins impishly. “You’re the one who came in here. I’m just looking at the stars. Couldn't sleep.”

“I followed a wolf in,” I reply, looking back toward the rock face where I had entered. “Or, at least to the wall, where I found a hole and crawled through it.” So I guess there isn’t any real way that Link could have planned this. “And then you were sitting here by this grave.” I think my own words over again and start, realizing something, but when I turn to speak to Link, he’s gone. I almost fall into the lake in my surprise, but catch myself in time. 

I look around for Link, and am startled by what I see. The blue-eyed wolf is on the other side of the lake, by the tunnel, and when he sees me, his ears flatten a bit in fear. He whirls around and melts into the shadows. 

“Don’t worry, Link,” I whisper. “Your secret is safe with me.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don't...remember where the idea for this came from. The original fic is still on my ffn.net account (under the same pen name, but it's called "By Moonlight") if you enjoy seeing writers improve drastically. 
> 
> There are still some things in this that feel a little awkward and lurchy, mostly because I have a hell of a time writing dialogue that sounds like normal people talking about Things. But I think it's alright and a nice little piece. The general structure is the same, but I made everything less terrible and changed the constellations to ones that adhered better to canon, though in WW you CAN see Orion and a couple other recognizable constellations. But people weren't huge fans of that decision the first go-round so I went ahead and changed it.


End file.
